The Narthex

Fear-mongering continues regarding parenthood and child-rearing. I address two aspects here: risk of maternal mortality and dangers associated with unintended pregnancy. Risk of Maternal Mortality A frequent contributor to this blog, Professor John M. Grondelski, has addressed the contention that maternal mortality (any mortality, no matter the rate) requires the escape…

The Erasure of Easter Easter is less than a week away. Among non-believers it’s easier to ignore than Christmas, as it always falls on a Sunday. You can say “goodbye” to a co-worker on Friday and return on Monday and Easter weekend will not be noticeably different to the broader…

About a year ago a new Planned Parenthood of America (PPA) clinic moved into the neighborhood. We first noticed it on the way to Mass at our Inglewood, California, parish, St. John Chrysostom. The clinic, fairly large and with bold signage, is in a busy strip mall. Why not? The…

April 19, 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On April 18, Paul Revere started his famous midnight ride. The Battles of Lexington and Concord are regarded as the start of the American Revolution. True, discontent with the British had been brewing for more than…

Scripture exhorts us, “O, that today you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts!” (Ps 95:7-8; Heb 3:7-8). Occasionally, that verse appears as a refrain to the Responsorial Psalm at Mass. For those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, Morning Prayer usually begins with Psalm 95. Why…

Social media upended the news world by providing ordinary people an opportunity to raise and discuss matters the establishment media didn’t or wouldn’t. I’ve also found it a place to discover ideas that deserve further discussion but which, because they aren’t on the immediate news cycle, won’t get their due.…

A tweet got me thinking about manufacturing jobs. The poster asked, “Do we really want manufacturing jobs back?” He seemed incredulous and saw an attempt to re-shore manufacturing as “turning back the clock.” My answer: Yes. As the post-COVID “recovery” showed us, America and many Western countries are extremely vulnerable…

Writing in the National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters criticizes the economic thinking of the Trump Administration, particularly the priorities of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought (the article is linked below). This paragraph particularly caught me:

The marriage of fiscal austerity with Christian values strikes…

Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Pope St. John Paul II. I miss him. John Paul was foundational in my life as a Catholic theologian. I was a college sophomore studying at St. Mary's College in Orchard Lake, Michigan, when he was elected. In those early college…

April 1 … is more than “April Fool’s Day.” It’s the end of the first quarter of the year. Ninety days of 2025 down. Last year I made a point of marking each quarter of the year to invite readers to consider what they’d done (or not done) with New…

“What a difference a day makes,” sang Dinah Washington. And why? Because “24 little hours / Brought the sun and the flowers / Where there used to be rain.” But sometimes, we know, it just keeps raining. So, it depends on the day, doesn’t it? What about a word? What…

Two pundits from opposite ends of the political spectrum manage to reach the same conclusion: being a “poor Church” really stinks for the really poor. Writing in the left-leaning La Croix, Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University bemoans the many harms he imagines Trump 2.0 poses for the Church (see READ FULL BLOG POST

Anyone observing the UK this month will be struck by the absolute supineness with which Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other politicians have fallen over themselves to salute Ramadan and accentuate the “contributions” Islam has made to British society. One thing is for certain: they show themselves apt candidates for…

Get Ready Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation. From today until Christmas is exactly nine months (for those of you who like to get "holiday" preparations underway early!). Today Jesus' Life began. Over the next several months, I'd like to remind readers on the 25th of just how Our…

Below is the Catholic Church’s first litany for lawyers and government officials. It has been ecclesiastically approved for private devotion. (Seven approved litanies exist for public devotion and dozens for private devotion.) I composed it for those who work, as I did, in the field of law as lawyers, legislators,…